Mortality from Alzheimer
Disease -- United States, 1979-1987

Although age-adjusted death rates for many leading causes of
death inthe United States declined from 1979 through 1987 (1),
the rates for Alzheimer disease (AD)* (International
Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification
(ICD-9-CM) rubric 331.0) increased substantially. To characterize
mortality patterns for AD and related disorders, CDC analyzed
U.S. mortality data for 1979-1987. This report provides a
preliminary summary of findingsfrom this analysis.

Deaths from AD were analyzed using data from multiple
cause-of-death data tapes supplied by CDC's National Center for
Health Statistics. Denominators for calculating rates were
obtained from intercensal population estimates. Age-adjusted
death rates were standardized to the 1980 U.S. population.

From 1979 through 1987, AD was listed as the underlying cause
of death for 46,202 persons in the United States. The
age-adjusted annual death rate increased from 0.4 per 100,000
persons in 1979 to 4.2 per 100,000 persons in 1987 (Figure 1).
For men, the annual rate increased from 0.5 to 4.6 per 100,000,
and for women, from 0.3 to 3.9 per 100,000. For blacks and
whites, rates increased with age; increases were higher for the
older age groups (Table 1). Within each age group, the rate for
whites was higher than for blacks.

In 1987, age-adjusted death rates were highest in the Rocky
Mountain states and in New England (Table 2). Montana and Utah
had the highest rates in 1987 and the greatest differences in
rates between 1979 and 1987. New York and Alaska had the lowest
rates in 1987 and the smallest differences in rates between 1979
and 1987.

To examine the hypothesis that shifts in diagnoses accounted
for the changes in rates, investigators compared age-adjusted
death rates for AD, senile and presenile dementias (ICD-9-CM
rubrics 290.0 and 290.1, respectively), and senility (ICD-9-CM
rubric 797) (Table3). For both AD and the dementias, rates
increased from 1979 to 1987; in comparison, the rate for senility
declined.
Reported by: Div of Chronic Disease Control and Community
Intervention, Office of Surveillance and Analysis, and Office of
the Director, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion,CDC.

Editorial Note

Editorial Note: Although death rates represent a potential
measure of the public health impact of AD, variations in the
accuracy of diagnosis and in the completion of death certificates
limit the value of mortality data for estimating the prevalence
of AD(3-7). Nonetheless, the patterns for AD death rates in this
report are consistent with those in England(4), Australia(5),
Norway(6), and Canada(7). In these countries, deaths from or
death rates for AD and related disorders have also increased.

At least two factors may be responsible for the observed
increase in death rates for AD in the United States. First, the
incidence or prevalence of AD may have increased. Second,
heightened awareness of AD may have caused physicians to diagnose
cognitive impairment as AD more frequently than in the past;
caused physicians to change their diagnoses and recording of
deaths (i.e., increases in mortality attributable to dementia
have been accompanied by decreases in deaths from senility); or
caused the death certificate to be a more sensitive or less
specific record of the premortem diagnosis of AD. Further
investigation may clarify the contribution of these two factors
to increased death rates for AD.

The heightened awareness of AD among health-care providers may
be due in part to educational efforts by the Alzheimer's Disease
and Related Disorders Association (created in 1979) and to
increased federal funding for research on AD and related
disorders (from $3.9 million in 1976 to $53.9 million in 1986
(8)).

Clinically, AD is characterized by progressive dementia without
a disturbance in consciousness. The diagnosis of AD requires
exclusion of other diseases associated with dementia(2).

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